It is known to attach decorative ornaments to caskets to “personalize” the casket to the deceased. Examples of mechanisms for attaching ornaments to the exterior of a casket, for example to the corners of the casket shell, are shown in, for example, the assignee's U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,591,466, 6,928,706, 7,591,052, and 7,698,792, all hereby incorporated by reference herein as if fully set forth in their entireties. Examples of mechanisms for attaching ornaments to the interior of a casket, for example to the cap panel mounted in the underneath side of the head end casket cap, are shown in, for example, the assignee's U.S. Pat. No. 8,220,119, hereby incorporated by reference herein as if fully set forth in its entirety.
One embodiment of the ornaments for attachment to the cap panel disclosed in the '119 patent utilizes one or more magnets mounted on the rear side of the “medallion” style ornament for magnetically attaching the medallion to a magnetic cap panel. On the other hand, the casket corner ornaments of the '466, '706, and '792 patents utilize fasteners with heads, mounted on the rear side of the ornament, which are secured in L-shaped keyhole slots in the casket shell corners.
It was desirable to be able to utilize the medallion ornaments with magnets thereon with the casket shell L-shaped keyhole slots so that the medallions can also be mounted on the casket shell corners.
To that end, one solution is shown in the assignee's U.S. Pat. No. 8,387,219, hereby incorporated by reference herein as if fully set forth in its entirety. The '219 patent discloses a casket comprising a casket shell and a casket lid closeable on the shell. A mounting plate is mounted to the shell. The plate includes at least one keyhole groove therein. A medallion casket ornament has at least one magnet mounted on its rear side. A magnetic adapter plate has at least one fastener with a head thereon mounted on its rear side. The adapter plate is removably secured to the shell by inserting the head of the fastener in the keyhole groove in the mounting plate and seating the head of the fastener in the keyhole groove. The casket ornament is removably secured to the shell by positioning the at least one magnet of the ornament on the adapter plate. See Prior Art FIG. 1.
An improvement to the attachment mechanism shown in Prior Art FIG. 1 is shown in Prior Art FIG. 2. Whereas in Prior Art FIG. 1 the entire adapter plate is fabricated of ferrous material, in the improved attachment mechanism shown in Prior Art FIG. 2 the adapter plate is injection molded of plastic. Two rearward facing fasteners, each with a head thereon, are molded into the plastic adapter plate. Three forward facing ferrous washers are also molded into the plastic adapter plate. Each washer is positioned in one of three recesses, also molded into the plastic adapter plate.
The assignee's U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,555,471 and 8,756,774, hereby incorporated by reference herein as if fully set forth in their entirety, disclose custom medallions that can be fabricated on site by a funeral director with family member-supplied or funeral director-supplied photos, artwork, or other images. However, due to the fact that these custom medallions are hand assembled, the photo, artwork, or other image may not be “plumb” relative to the three magnets of the medallion, thus resulting in a canted photo, image, or other artwork once the custom medallion is attached to the adapter plate shown in Prior Art FIG. 2, which is mounted to the casket shell.
Accordingly, further improvement is desired.